Ogilvy Sydney evolves creative department into industry powerhouse and hires new creatives

Ogilvy Sydney has announced significant changes to its creative structure, fully integrating its social creatives into the creative department, and adding a raft of new creatives to its ranks.

Derek Green ECD, Ogilvy Sydney said the hiring spree and merging of creative, social and content creatives under his stewardship, marked one of the most exciting times in the evolution of his creative department.   

Says Green: “These days, we’re constantly fighting to keep our ideas as simple as possible in an ever-so-complex environment. With so many ways to talk to consumers, it makes no sense to get the so-called ‘mainstream creatives’ to create the big idea and then hand it off to the social/content team to adapt the idea for their platforms.

“We’ve changed how all work is briefed, and how teams are structured – and this way, their diverse skills will cross-pollinate to create richer thinking.  This is about anticipating our clients’ future needs and doing something to address them.”

To support this focus, Ogilvy has added a raft of new talent to its creative department. 

Says Green: “We’ve hired a wide range of talent with diverse skills and to fit with our creative strategy – that cut through comes from engaging in more than just the inner-city advertising community. It’s a necessary approach in a fast-moving market, and our clients are already reaping the rewards as we continually produce work that works.”

Ben Smith and Luke Hawkins, (both previously Clemenger BBDO Sydney) have joined as creative directors working closely with creative group head/head of digital, Shaun Branagan, to service KFC – an account focused on delivering the best work beyond just television and print.

Says Green: “Shaun has transformed the KFC Business over the past five years and with Ben and Luke on board we look forward to seeing more great work to come.”

Smith and Hawkins first teamed up at Clemenger BBDO in 2014 as creative directors on the Mars business where they were instrumental in pushing the creativity and effectiveness of the work through award winning campaigns – ‘The Pepper Hacker‘ for Dolmio, MasterFoods ‘Make Dinnertime Matter‘ and Whiskas ‘Catstacam‘. The pair also led awarded work for Toshiba, ‘Made in 17 Hours‘ and GE, ‘Geeks go for Gold‘.

Also boosting the team are copywriters Farah Ahmad, Fred Corazza, Georgie Waters and Ava Frawley, and art directors Jasmine Subrata, Raphael Valenti and Felix Ettelson.

Says Green: “These creatives represent very different styles of creative teams – always keeping us on our toes, developing ideas from a totally different direction, and taking creative risks I love to see. I can’t wait to see what they all do next.”

You can check out some of Corazza and Valenti’s work here. Or some great stuff that Subrata and Ahmad have already made on KFC here.

The social and content specialist creatives joining the main creative department are, Nathan Moraza, Wilson Kwong, Tom Macphail, Maddi Hoskin, Lucy Hay and Joshua Tan.

Adds Green: “Their integration reflects an agency wide commitment to best-in-class content that extends beyond the standard ways we approach channels.” 

Says Alex Watts, head of social, Ogilvy Sydney: “Our team has a long history of doing incredible social work, and bringing them into the fold of the creative department centres our offering around content and social. I’m incredibly excited for them, and for where our team goes next.”